<img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

You have such a talent for making people feel good about themselves. I am special, aren't I!

Yes, silly you. I learned in geometry that if a=b and b=c, then a=c. So if Gargamel=OW and OW=alley cat, well........

A small digression. In late February I drove alone to the Bay Area to meet some of the staff from the publishing company. They were having a big yearly event with all our church's bookstores represented, while they presented all the new books. Since I could go, they wanted me to help present my book.

On the way, AJ called me and just started to chat for the first time since January. It was a real epiphany for me of just how bad things had gotten. I was so used to short, unfriendly conversations that after a minute or two I started to feel agitated, fighting the urge to let myself go even though there was no reason to. I had to very firmly remind myself that I used to like talking to him, he used to like talking to me, and that this was a very good thing.

We probably talked for a half-hour or 45 minutes, by the end of which I was pretty well catatonic, and headed to LA instead of San Francisco. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> Fortunately, I was only about 20 minutes off course and I had left very early, so I still made it on time.

The presentation went off without a hitch. (I laughed. I cried! It moved me, Bob!) No one there had any idea anything was wrong.

That day marked the second visible sign that there was a change. (The first change was from indifference to anger.)